Friday, September 21, 2012

This art is for the birds! A street artist by the name of Combo created an awesome open-air art exhibition specifically for pigeons. Not only are the pieces pigeon-sized and placed at the birds’ eye level, they’re each easily recognizable pieces of well-known art that have been altered to reflect a pigeon-centric world. The pigeon version of American Gothic is probably our favourite.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Here's a nice treat: a sample chapter from my non-fiction book, Welcome to Weirdsville ... this time on the wonderful (and sometimes frightening) world of fungus!

THE FUNGUS AMONG US

Let's play a game: animal, mineral, or vegetable?
The answer? Two out of three. Ladies and gentlemen: the
wonderful, and let's not forget weird, world of fungi.
But first a ridiculously quick science lesson, and an explanation for
the opening above: scientists consider fungi to be part of a separate
and unique kingdom, in that they aren't plants and they're not animals
– so they really are two out of three.
It's this 'not one and not the other' that make fungi wonderfully –
and somewhat disturbing – to study. At their most identifiable they an
fundamental part of our diet: buttons, portobellos, shitakes, oysters,
morels, chanterelles, and more – including the expensive yet
ubiquitous truffle. But fungi are also essential to make many of our
foods ... well, food: without them we wouldn't have cheese, beer,
wine, bread and too many others to name. If that isn't impressive
enough, our odd not-quite-an-animal, not-quite-a-plant, is also
indispensable to medicine: penicillin, the cornerstone of antibiotics,
was mold found in a Petri dish, after all. In fact some experts claim
that if anything were to happen to our fungal friends humanity would
be, at worst, extinct, or at best, pretty miserable.
But mushrooms and yeasts and molds are only the public face of
the fungal world. Beyond beer, wine, cheese, and medicine there's a
stranger side – in fact a rainbow of oddness. Mushrooms, you may
think, are brown or white, right? But fungi can also be spectacularly
colorful: the Parrot Waxcap is as green as grass, the Crimson Waxy
Cap is sunset crimson, and the Slimy Spike-cap is even bright purple.
There are even varieties of mushroom that aren't just colorful but
actually glow in the dark: Omphalotus olearius, the Jack o' Lantern,
for example, is a celebrated bioluminescent fungus, as is the
Australian ghost fungus.
Even when fungi are brown and dull appearances can be deceiving:
the aptly named stinkhorn, for example, produces the aroma of rotting
meat to attract flies, which help the mushroom spread its spores.
Speaking of spore-spreading, the puffball mushroom and its various relations do it in a very dramatic fashion, quite literally shooting their
spawn into the air when touched.

But for all their color and their clever tricks, fungi have an even
odder side, one that might make you look at that blue cheese in your
sandwich, or that beer you were planning to have with lunch, a little
differently – if not with out-and-out fear.
Sure, fungi have given us much but they can also take it away, and
not just for people who mistake an amanita phalloides for an amanita
caesarea: Cryptococcus gattii, though rare, is alarmingly fatal and is
airborne. How fatal? Well, it's considered to be one of – if not the –
most lethal fungal infections you can get. There are other deadly
fungi, and as most of them are extremely opportunistic and durable,
they can spread wildly and are all but impossible to kill. Just think
athlete's foot mixed with a rattlesnake.
It's fungi's ability to grow just about anywhere that makes it so
amazing. If you name a hostile environment there's more than likely
some form of mushroom or yeast that will not only grow there but
prefer it over anywhere else. An extreme version of this is when
researchers stuck their instruments into one of the most poisonous
places on earth and found not only a species of mushroom growing
there but one that actually appears to be feeding on the toxicity. How
nasty is this place? Well, all you need to say is one word to shudder
at the thought: Chernobyl.
But strangeness and fungi don't end with radiation-feasting
mushrooms, for there are quite a number of them that feast on other
things – including animals. Nematophagous fungi, for instance, grow
miniscule rings that, if a nematode happens to squirm into one, rapidly
contract, trapping the unfortunate lunch ... I mean 'worm.' If this
makes you a bit nervous take a bit of consolation in that the popular
oyster mushroom is also a nematode killer – and it's also tasty, so
while it eats them we also eat it.
But eating isn't the only dark thing fungi do. One particular species
has an extremely disturbing lifecycle – and a terrifying one ... if you
happen to be an ant. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, if it gets half a
chance, will infect an ant and (ahem) eat parts of its brain, causing the poor little insect to basically become the walking dead The fungus
finishes it off only after it clamps itself to the underside of a leaf, just
where the fungus wants it to die – a location that works really well for
the fungi, but definitely not the ant.

Yes, they have given us much: all those mushrooms and other
amazing fungi. Without them we would have very bland food, let
alone no booze, and would probably die a lot quicker without
antibiotics. Some of them are as pretty as flowers, a few may be
deadly to the unlucky or the tragically ignorant, while further species
lurk in the soil for the unwary nematode, but – basically – they have
been our friends for a very long time.
Besides, we'd better watch our step: while the jury is out on the
subject, many experts point to a certain forest in Oregon. What's
special about this hunk of land, that particular stand of trees? Well,
the honey mushroom that lives there, and occupies over 2,200 acres of
that forest, may very well be the largest organism on the earth.
So we had better treat them well – all those wondrous fungi – just
in case that they, or just that single huge mushroom, should wake up
and remind us of all they've done for us ... or could do to us.

CLASS DESCRIPTION:
Sure, you've heard of it – and maybe been intrigued by it – but what is polyamory and how do you love more than one person and make it work? How can you deal with jealousy, time-management, emotional rough patches, and more, to enter into multiple sexual relationships? We'll learn to separate the myths from the realities of polyamory, how to make tentative steps towards having more than one partner, and how to approach and deal with the problems of sharing yourself with others, and being involved with someone who, in turn, is involved with someone else.
Doors open at 7:30 pm - Meeting begins at 8 pm

CLASS DESCRIPTION:
There are many ways to reach your inner sexual and spiritual self - but one of the most surprisingly powerful paths is through the written word. In this lecture/workshop, participants will hear how erotic writing (fiction as well non-fiction) can reach hidden places that often lay unexposed, and to help make personal discoveries and to assist in a personal journey of self and sensuality. Participants will learn how to free their erotic writing voices, how to develop their writing towards discovering their erotic spirits within, and when to silence - and when to listen - to the inner critic.

CLASS DESCRIPTION:
Celebrated erotic author M. Christian will be teaching his acclaimed sex-writing class and workshop Sex Sells: How To Write And Sell Erotica one time only in New York City!

The market for erotic fiction and nonfiction has always been popular but these days it's truly booming. Gay, lesbian, bi, straight ... you name it and it's selling like mad!

But even though the genre is more popular that ever, doesn't mean that there aren't important lessons to be learned in how to write, and sell, effective erotica.

For the beginning writer, erotica can be the ideal place to begin getting published, and - best of all - earning money ... and for the experienced author, erotica can be an excellent way to beef up your resume and hone your writing skills.

In Sex Sells: How To Write And Sell Erotica - this wildly entertaining class - M. Christian will review the varieties of personal and literary expression possible in this exciting and expanding field. Here you'll learn not just these creative techniques to writing stories that wonderfully sizzle but also essential lessons in dealing with editors, publishers, marketing your work, using social networking sites, and more.

In Sex Sells: How To Write And Sell Erotica you'll learn:
· How to create love and sex scenes that sizzle
· Current pay rates
· How to write for a wide variety of erotic genres
· Where and how to submit your writing
· The ebook revolution and what it means for writers of any genre
· How to cultivate your erotic imagination
· Where to sell your work to magazines, websites, anthologies, book publishers
· Techniques for writing convincing stories for sexual orientation and interests beyond your own
· The best Internet resources for writers of erotica
· How respond to fans, reviewers and criticism
- and much, much more

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Jarlshof: looking down into a round house near to Sumburgh, Shetland Islands, Great Britain

The archaeological site at Jarlshof represents over 4,000 years of continual human habitation. The earliest remains are of Bronze Age buildings from around 2500-2000 BC; Iron Age round houses date from between 200 BC and AD 800; a Viking settlement from the 9th to 14th centuries stands towards the eastern side of the site; and finally the castle, the Laird’s House, stands in the centre of the site and was converted from a medieval farmhouse to a fortified residence in the 1500s.

Similarly to Skara Brae in Orkney, the Jarlshof site was hidden until a storm in the late 1800s expsed some of the remains. Archaeological work in the 1920s and 1940s/50s revealed the full extent of the site.
Here, we stand on the top floor of Jarlshof: the Laird’s House and look west over the later Iron Age buildings, larger and more advanced than the earliest round houses on the opposite side. It is easy from here to appreciate the term ‘wheelhouse’ used for these buildings - built in circular fashion around a central hub with storage areas and small rooms leading off it.

This design by UK architect Yheu-Shen Chua has been awarded Third Place in eVolo’s 2011 Skyscraper Competition: “One of the main purposes of the project is to allow the water from the upstream river to engage directly with the visitors through a series of containers. A hanging tower above the 700-foot drop into the Black Canyon would be used as gallery and a vertical aquarium.”

Here's another fun piece from my collection of strange (but true) stuff: Welcome to Weirdsville: This time it's on the largest - non-nuclear - blasts on earth.

KABOOM

For most of us BOOM, KABLAM, KABLOOIE mean a mushroom
cloud and a cute little animated turtle talking about ducking and
covering – as well as the possible End Of All Life As We Know It.
But, unfortunately, not every monstrous explosion began with J.
Robert Oppenheimer saying "Now I am become Death, the destroyer
of worlds." Even putting aside natural blasts such as the eruption of
Krakatoa, which was so massive the sound of it was heard as far away
as London, the earth has still to be rocked by more than its fair share
of man-made, non-atomic BOOMs, KABLAMs, and KABLOOIEs.
One of the more terrifying non-nuclear explosions ever to occur
was in 1917 up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Back in December of that
year the Mont-Blanc plowed into another ship, the Imo, starting a
ferocious fire. Ten minutes later the Mont-Blanc went up, creating
what is commonly considered to be one of the largest non-nuclear
explosions in earth history.
The Mont-Blanc was a big ship carrying a lot of extremely
dangerous cargo – almost 3,000 tons of munitions bound for the war
that was then tearing Europe apart. What happened that morning,
which lead to the blast and the nightmarish loss of life, reads like a
textbook example of whatever could go wrong, did. To avoid being
torpedoed, the Mont-Blanc wasn't flying any dangerous cargo flags,
so no one except for her crew knew her cargo was so dangerous.
When the fire got out of control, the Mont-Blanc's crew tried to warn
as many people as possible – but they only spoke French and the
language of Halifax was English. Not realizing the danger, crowds
began to form to watch the blaze. The Mont-Blanc, on fire, also
began to drift toward a nearby pier ... that was also packed with
munitions bound for the war.When everything finally came together – the criminal negligence,
the miscommunication, and worst of all the fire and the explosives –
the blast was roughly equal to 3 kilotons of TNT. The fireball roared
up above the town and the shockwave utterly destroyed the town and
everything within one mile of the epicenter. Metal and wreckage fell as far away as 80 miles from the blast and the sound of the detonation
was heard more than 225 miles away. The explosion was so huge it
generated a tsunami that roared away from the epicenter and then
back into the harbor again, adding to the death and destruction.

It wasn't until days later that the true horror of what had happened
was realized: Halifax was completely gone, erased from the face of
the earth, along with every ship in the harbor and most of the nearby
town of Dartmouth. Approximately 2,000 people died from the
explosion and another 9,000 were injured.

Unfortunately Halifax wasn't the first such explosives-related
accident in 1917. Unbelievably, before the Mont-Blanc destroyed the
town, 73 people were killed in the explosion of a munitions factory in
Silvertown in West Ham, Essex. The sound was heard as far away as
100 miles. A year earlier, the Johnson Barge No.17 went up Jersey
City. Although only a few people were killed, the explosion managed
to damage not only Ellis Island but also the Statue of Liberty. There
were many other blasts as well, but these are only a few of the more
dreadful highlights.
You'd think after these nightmarish explosions, caution about
things that go BOOM would have sunk in a bit, but the second world
war also saw more than its fair share of explosive accidents. In 1944,
for instance, the SS Fort Stikine went up while docked in Bombay,
India. When her cargo went up, the blast killed 800 men and injured
3,000. The fire that followed took more than three days to control.
Also in 1944, the UK experienced what is commonly considered
the largest blast ever to occur on British soil when 3,700 tons of high
explosives were accidentally detonated in an underground munitions
store in Fauld, Staffordshire. The explosion was so massive it formed
a crater 3⁄4 of a mile across and more than 400 feet deep – and
destroyed not only the base but a nearby reservoir (and all the water in
it).
But one of the biggest blasts – aside from the two atomic bombs
dropped on Japan – was also one of the largest in human history, and
one of the most tragic.
Once again in 1944, on July 17 to be specific, munitions being loaded onto a ship in Port Chicago, California, (very close to San
Francisco) detonated. No one knows what exactly caused the blast,
but the damage was biblical. All in all, more than 5,000 tons of high
explosives, plus whatever else was in the stores on the base and on
any ships docked, was involved. The explosion was so massive it was
felt as far away as Las Vegas (500 miles distant) and people were
injured all over the Bay Area when windows were shattered by the
immense pressure wave.

320 were killed immediately and almost 400 were seriously injured,
but that's not the real tragedy. Most of these men were African
American and this single disaster accounted for almost 15% of
African American casualties during that war.
Still fearing for their safety, the remaining men, who had just spent
three weeks pulling the bodies of their fellow sailors from the
wreckage, refused to load any further munitions. The Army, in a
characteristic show of support, considered this an act of mutiny and
court-martialed 208 sailors, sending an additional 50 to jail for 8 to 15
years.
Fortunately, the 'mutineers' were given clemency after Thurgood
Marshall fought for them, though the final member only received
justice in 1999 in the form of a Presidential pardon by President Bill
Clinton.
Today in Port Chicago there's a marker on the spot and it states that
the event was a step toward "racial justice and equality."
And all it took was one of the largest non-nuclear, man-made,
blasts in the history of the world – and the deaths of 320 sailors.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The film is 30 minutes long and consists primarily of Naohisa Inoue's fantasy paintings of the Iblard world. Studio Ghibli digitally animated portions of the paintings and integrated original elements into the scenery. There are 8 separate segments, each featuring a different painting or landscape and instrumental musical piece. The film focuses mostly on static shots of "moving" scenery: Inoue's paintings digitally altered, so that grass moves in the wind, people walk, etc. There is no dialogue in the film.

In the world of El, the animals that walk the land only exist as faint what-ifs from dreams long forgotten past waking, the powers of time breaks useless against their backs adorned with plantlife, cities, and other meticulously vibrant structures… themselves, the carriers of worlds. Some of Ellen’s mythical masterpieces, conjured forth from the ether with wire armatures, clay, and acrylics, can be welcomed into your own world with a purchase from her etsy.Artist: DeviantArt / LiveJournal

Reel Monsters

Dark Doings at Miskatonic U

Welcome To Weirdsvlle

Love Without Gun Control

Calling M.Christian versatile is a
tremendous understatement. Extensively published in science fiction, fantasy,
horror, thrillers, and even non-fiction, it is in erotica that M.Christian has
become an acknowledged master, with stories in such anthologies as
Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Bisexual
Erotica, Best Fetish Erotica, and in fact too many anthologies, magazines, and
sites to name.In erotica,
M.Christian is known and respected not just for his passion on the page but
also his staggering imagination and chameleonic ability to successfully and
convincingly write for any and all orientations.

But M.Christian has other tricks up
his literary sleeve: in addition to writing, he is a prolific and respected
anthologist, having edited 25 anthologies to date including the Best S/M
Erotica series; Pirate Booty; My Love For All That Is Bizarre: Sherlock Holmes
Erotica; The Burning Pen; The Mammoth Book of Future Cops, and The Mammoth Book
of Tales of the Road (with Maxim Jakubowksi); Confessions, Garden of Perverse,
and Amazons (with Sage Vivant), and many more.

M.Christian's short fiction has been
collected into many bestselling books in a wide variety of genres, including
the Lambda Award finalist Dirty Words and other queer collections like Filthy
Boys, BodyWork, and his best-of-his-best gay erotica book, Stroke the
Fire.He also has collections of
non-fiction (Welcome to Weirdsville, Pornotopia, and How To Write And Sell
Erotica); science fiction, fantasy and horror (Love Without Gun Control); and
erotic science fiction including Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than
The Real Thing, and the acclaimed Bachelor Machine.

As a novelist, M.Christian has shown
his monumental versatility with books such as the queer vamp novels Running Dry
and The Very Bloody Marys; the erotic romance Brushes; the science fiction
erotic novel Painted Doll; and the rather controversial gay horror/thrillers
Finger's Breadth and Me2.

M.Christian is also the Associate
Publisher for Renaissance eBooks,
where he strives to be the publisher he'd want to have as a writer, and to help
bring quality books (erotica, noir, science fiction, and more) and authors out
into the world.